Sunday, April 17, 2011

DaddyBear's Burgoo

Yesterday I had planned on smoking one of the HUGE Boston butts we got at the meat counter a couple of months ago and froze, but the weather sucked the zub kebir. So I threw it in the crockpot with onions, bourbon, and spices, and served it pulled and barbecue-sauced with Irish Woman's favorite vegetable, corn and green beans cooked with salty pork product, and mashed potatoes.

Of course, since there's no way that we could eat an entire pork shoulder roast, I had three quarters of it left, along with quite a bit of corn and green beans. Today was filled up with housework, laundry, and yard work, so I made something that's easy to prepare in the crockpot. I decided to make my rendition of burgoo, which is a local soup that is basically some variation of "Take all the leftovers from the barbecue and make soup out of them".

Ingredients:

1 to 2 pounds of barbecued, shredded meat. This can be pork, beef, chicken, turkey, sausage, or whatever. Bonus points for using several different types of meat.
1 small can diced tomatoes with chilis. Dice up and add your own chilis if you want.
1/4 cup dried onions
1 12 ounce bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
1/2 cup of your favorite whiskey to add smokey flavor
4 to 6 cups of assorted vegetables, fresh or frozen.
2 cups dry white rice
4 cups water

Thoroughly shred the meat and put in the crockpot along with the onions, barbecue sauce, bourbon, and tomatoes. Put on low heat for 6 to 8 hours, stirring occasionally. 2 hours before dinner, add the vegetables. I thoroughly drained the leftover corn and green beans, and added a small package of frozen mixed vegetables. 1 hour before dinner, combine the rice and water in a covered saucepan and bring to a boil. When the rice boils, shut off the heat and let the rice absorb the water. Once the rice has absorbed all of the water, mix it into the stock and vegetables. Let set for 10 to 20 minutes, then serve with fresh baked bread or biscuits.

If you want it a little thicker and a little more authentic, add some okra with the vegetables. If you don't care for okra, you can cut the amount of water for the rice down to 1 1/2 cups, and let it set in the stock for a little longer to finish cooking. If you want to up the amount of heat, adding more chilis with the meat creates a nice burn.